


Fight Club

by Sdktrs12



Series: Something Gained [4]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bondage fantasy Lite, Boxing, F/M, Gyms, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Yoga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:00:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21784852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sdktrs12/pseuds/Sdktrs12
Summary: “Aight, so first,” He straightens up, stepping right up into her personal space, “we’re gonna wrap those tiny little hands o’ yours.” He has a roll of what looks like white cloth in his hands. He takes one of her hands in his, keeping it palm down and hooking the loop at the end of the cloth around her thumb. “This’ll help support and secure your joints. Wouldn’t wanna fracture somethin’ so delicate.” His fingers trace over hers knuckles briefly, a completely unnecessary touch that has her breath catching in her throat, stopping any of her usual snarky comments from coming out.He starts at her wrist, wrapping the cloth around, his movements slow and methodical and Beth’s mind briefly goes somewhere dark and dirty, imagining him wrapping her wrists together, pushing her up against the wall and hooking her bound wrists above her head...“Darlin’, if you keep lettin’ all your thoughts play out ‘cross that pretty little face o’ yours, we gonna be doin’ a very different kinda workout here.”
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Series: Something Gained [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1556221
Comments: 18
Kudos: 138





	Fight Club

**Author's Note:**

> I've been using that 'unresolved sexual tension' tag A LOT in this series.  
> This is part 2 of Jack and Jill.  
> I wasn't originally planning on writing the actual boxing session mentioned in Jack and Jill(funnily enough, this is now longer than any other part of this series), but vuccijl and Gab wanted it, so here it is! Hope you guys enjoy it!  
> (I've never taken an actual boxing lesson, so please forgive me any inaccuracies.)

Beth parks her car outside of the address Rio had sent her last night and lets out a long sigh of resignation. 

She was up before the sun this morning and she feels like maybe there should be a law against that. Especially on days after a night of heavy drinking and _falling down the damn steps_. Or, rather, falling up them. 

Beth gets out of her car, grabbing her gym bag from the back seat and then locking up. 

She approaches the double doors cautiously. The place looks dim and empty, like maybe they’re closed. She tries not to get her hopes up at that, double checking her phone for any messages from Rio. There’s nothing there, so she tentatively pulls on one of the door handles, a little surprised (and more than a little annoyed) when it opens easily. 

“Hello?” She calls out as she steps inside, letting the door fall closed behind her. 

“Yo! Lock that door behind you, yeah?” 

Rio’s voice comes from off to the side and further back in the enormous open space of the gym, and she quickly turns to lock the doors before wandering over to where his voice had come from. 

She slowly comes to a stop as he comes into view, standing over in an area spaced out with punching bags. He’s standing in front of one, his focus on his phone and Beth is thankful for that, because it means he hasn’t noticed her open mouthed appraisal as her eyes travel over his body. 

He’s in a loose workout tank and shorts, and Beth bites her lip as her gaze moves over his arms and the hard muscle there, his tattoos on full display. He must’ve already started a workout, because he’s covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and it’s _doing things_ to her. 

She wants to step closer, pull him down to her mouth, lick up the side of his neck and taste him... 

“Elizabeth.” 

Beth’s eyes snap up to his and she realizes he’s said something that she’s missed and her cheeks burn with embarrassment. 

It deepens when he smirks at her, like he knows exactly what has her distracted. 

His eyes travel slowly over her body, like he’s paying her back, and Beth shifts a little on her feet. She’s adequately covered, in a workout tank and cropped leggings, she just wishes they weren’t so... _tight_. 

And she’s suddenly very aware of the fact that they are very much alone, the only other noise in the place is the music coming out of the overhead speakers. 

“So, where is everyone else?” She asks, a little nervously. 

Rio grins at her, tossing his phone on a nearby mat and stepping closer. “There aint no one else. Jus’ you an me, darlin’.” 

Beth shuffles backward as inconspicuously as possible, but the little twitch at Rio’s lips let’s her know he’s noticed. “So what, the owner just lets you take over the gym whenever you want?” 

“Somethin’ like that. So, you all warmed up or you need help with that too?” He gives her another lewd once over and Beth rolls her eyes, tossing her bag over to the mat where his phone is. 

“I’m good.” It’s a lie, she hadn’t realized she needed to warm up before this, but she’s not going to admit that to him. 

Rio shakes his head, like he can tell she’s lying, but he lets it go as he turns and crouches down next to his bag, pulling a few things out. 

“Aight, so first,” He straightens up, stepping right up into her personal space, “we’re gonna wrap those tiny little hands o’ yours.” He has a roll of what looks like white cloth in his hands. He takes one of her hands in his, keeping it palm down and hooking the loop at the end of the cloth around her thumb. “This’ll help support and secure your joints. Wouldn’t wanna fracture somethin’ so delicate.” His fingers trace over hers knuckles briefly, a completely unnecessary touch that has her breath catching in her throat, stopping any of her usual snarky comments from coming out. 

He starts at her wrist, wrapping the cloth around, his movements slow and methodical and Beth’s mind briefly goes somewhere dark and dirty, imagining him wrapping her wrists together, pushing her up against the wall and hooking her bound wrists above her head... 

“Darlin’, if you keep lettin’ all your thoughts play out ‘cross that pretty little face o’ yours, we gonna be doin’ a very different kinda workout here.” 

Beth flushes as her eyes snap up to meet Rio’s, and she realizes she’s been biting down on her lip, and _god_ , does she have to be so obvious? 

“Sorry.” Beth mumbles, embarrassed by her behavior. 

“No need ta be sorry. You decide you wanna act on those thoughts, you let me know.” His voice is teasing, but his eyes...his eyes are serious, the heat there making her shift her own gaze down to the floor. 

He’s moving from her wrist up to her hand now, wrapping around her palm a few times and then moving on to her fingers. It’s kind of, almost...soothing watching him work. He’s fixed on her hands, his face concentrating on the task in front of him, his large hands and long fingers moving gracefully and expertly around hers. 

“How long have you been doing this?” She asks, curious. He seems very confident and knowledgeable in what he’s doing. 

“Shit, since I was old enough to walk,” He huffs out a laugh, shrugging his shoulder, “Was practically raised in a boxin’ ring.” 

He’s finishing up with her fingers and moving on to wrap around her thumb and then her knuckles. It’s pretty intricate work and she’s pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to replicate it on her own. 

Beth’s wondering if she should bite her tongue on the question she wants to ask, but in the end decides to just go for it. “Was your dad a boxer?” 

Rio pauses in his ministrations and she thinks maybe she overstepped some sort of unspoken boundary. But then he finishes up, securing the handwrap around her wrist and moving on to her other hand. 

“Yeah, he did some amateur boxin' back in ‘is day.” Rio’s jaw clenches a little after he answers and Beth decides it’s probably best not to push the topic. 

Now that he’s done one hand, wrapping the other one is quick work and he squeezes both her hands when he’s done before letting them go. “How's that feel?” 

Beth squeezes her hands into fists and then relaxes them, flexing her fingers out a bit. “It feels good.” 

He gives a quick nod and then tilts his head, gesturing for her to follow him as he makes his way over to a table off to the side, along the far wall. There are a few different pairs of boxing gloves resting on top, and he waves his hand out at them. “These are all trainin’ gloves, super lightweight. Try a few, see which ones fit tha best. They should be comfortable.” 

He leaves her to it, wandering back over to the row of punching bags and pulling more items out of his bag. 

Beth tries on a few of the gloves, making sure she can comfortably make a fist and stretching her fingers to make sure there’s enough room. She finally settles on a pair and takes them back over to Rio. 

He helps her put them on and she goes to stand in front of a bag, but he stops her. He guides her over to the mirror lining the wall in front of them instead. He grabs her waist and turns her toward it. 

“Not yet.” He says, referring to the bags, giving her waist a quick squeeze before letting her go. “We gonna go through some combos first, gotta learn how to throw a proper punch. Don’t want you hurtin’ yourself before we even start.” 

And Beth almost punches him right then, that damn smirk on his face irritating her per usual. She thinks he must do it on purpose, loves riling her up for some reason. At least right now she can channel that energy into this. 

And maybe that’s his goal. 

He turns and stands to the side of her, facing the mirror too, and she watches him through it, clocking how his stance changes and she tries to mimic it, even though she feels ridiculous. 

And she must not be doing a very good job anyway, because he breaks his stance to move behind her, using his hands and feet to position her, shifting her upper body and then her legs until he’s satisfied with the end result. She tries to keep her breathing slow and steady as his hands slide over her, but _damn_ does he have the most profound effect on her body. 

Rio moves to the side again, getting back into position and Beth tries to shake off the hot prickly feeling he’s left her with. 

“Aight, bring your right hand up here,” He moves his own right hand up to the right side of his face, by his chin, in a loose fist. He waits for her to copy his movements, then continues, “An your left hand’s gonna come up to the front.” He moves his left arm up, bending it at the elbow, hand looser than his other, posed in a classic fighting position and Beth does the same. 

He gestures with his left hand, “This ya first line of defense,” then he gestures with his right, “This is ya second. You can move your feet to attack or retreat and you can also punch.” He shuffles his feet, bouncing around a little as he punches at the air and Beth copies his movements, trying not to get sidetracked by the way his muscles flex in his arms. “Good, good.” He hums his approval at her and Beth grins. 

“Lemme show you some steps an combos an then we’ll step up to the bag.” 

He walks her through the seven basic combinations and Beth struggles a little trying to keep it straight. There’s a lot of jabs and hooks and crosses and she’s already feeling exhausted by the time he’s satisfied with how well she’s learned the steps and he’s ready for her to try the bag. 

He steps up to the bag first, showing her how to step in, what combos to throw, stepping back to change angles and then throwing some more. He doesn’t have gloves on, just the handwraps, so he never actually hits the bag, just quickly mimes the motions. 

He moves aside so she can step up and he talks her through everything he’s just done-- the punches, the combos, and the angles-- stepping in and correcting any mistakes she makes. 

Beth is a hot sweaty mess already. The hair that’s fallen loose from her ponytail is sticking to her face and neck and she can feel trickles of sweat traveling down her back and in between her boobs. 

Beth thinks maybe this is what hell feels like. 

She doesn’t go to the gym, like ever-- really just counts all their apartment building steps as her workout for the day-- so she is feeling rough, to say the least. 

Rio seems to sense her exhaustion, so he lets her have a ten minute break to drink some water and take a quick breather, before they start again. 

They don’t go back to the bag though. Instead he takes her into the boxing ring in the center of the gym. She feels weird stepping into it, her mind flashing through the catalog of movies she’s seen that feature boxing matches. She feels like there should be a cheering crowd and a ring girl holding up a sign. Probably best that there’s not an audience to witness this though. 

He puts some boxing mitts on and waves her closer. “We’re doin’ some light sparrin’. This aint like the bag, I’ma be movin’, so you gotta be movin’ too, yeah?” 

Beth swallows nervously, nodding her head after a moment's hesitation. At least he doesn’t have gloves on, so she’ll be the only one doing all the hitting. 

“Elizabeth,” He holds her gaze with a reassuring smile, “You got this. Just like we practiced.” 

He holds the mitts up in front of him, “Jus’ cross and jab.” 

Beth does as instructed, hitting his left with hers and then repeating the motion with the opposite hand. He pushes into it a little with the mitts when she lands her hits, but other than that, his body stays stationary. 

He lets her go for a few, and then, “Aight lets add that hook in there.” 

Beth rocks on her feet, repeating her cross jab motions and adding a left hook at the end. 

Rio grins and Beth feels her heart flutter a little at his obvious approval, even though her arms feel like they’re going to fall off. 

And then Rio starts bouncing a little on his feet, moving his own arms in a cross jab, like he’s warming up, and Beth resists the urge to back away. 

He grins at her determination in the face of her obvious discomfort. “You ready?” 

“No.” She all but squeaks out and Rio outright laughs then. 

He steps forward and Beth gets into position, putting her arms up. 

He lifts the mitts up again and she hits him with a cross jab. “Counter, roll, cross.” He instructs, before lifting his arm up and swinging, slow enough that she can see it coming, and she ducks. He falls back into position and she hits him with another cross. 

“Again.” He says, not giving her time to recover or think, and they repeat the previous motions, this time at a faster pace. They repeat that combination a few more times before he throws in some new punches. 

“Jab, cross, hook, uppercut, uppercut.” He demands in succession. 

She has a little more trouble remembering the order of those, especially when he throws a counter in there, making her block instead of roll. He makes her repeat it until she gets it, until she can perform the combinations without him having to stop and correct her. She still feels clumsy, but it’s getting easier. 

He keeps moving forward, forcing her to use the footwork he showed her earlier, advancing on her as she dodges him around the ring. He’s rolling out combos and she’s trying to keep up, but it’s harder to concentrate when she has to focus on keeping her footwork in check along with her punches. 

He finally backs off, letting her take another break, this one a little longer than the last. She must look really pathetic. Beth’s glad they’re not anywhere near a mirror anymore, she’s sure she’s not a pretty sight. 

She’s taken her boxing gloves off and Rio’s taken the mitts off and they’re sitting crossed legged in the center of the ring, facing each other. And it’s really not fair, how exhausted she looks and feels and how gorgeous and energetic he still looks. 

And, _god_ , she can’t help thinking about how that stamina must play out in the bedroom. 

She can feel the blush spreading across her face and chest, and of course, he notices. Because nothing escapes his attention when it comes to her. A smile slowly spreads across his face and she just knows he’s going to say something lewd, so she clears her throat, tries to get ahead of it. 

“How often do you come here?” She asks, trying to divert his attention. He knows what she’s doing, but he plays along anyway. 

“Prolly been comin’ here since I was-- I dunno, twelve maybe? Used to come in durin’ the week when I was skippin’ school,” He stops for a minute, mischievous glint in his eye, before continuing, “Now that I own the place, gotta come in a bit more often.” 

The expression on her face must be exactly what he was looking for when he decided to drop that bit of information, because his smile only grows wider. “You own this place?” Beth looks around again, taking everything in with new eyes, imagining Rio’s personal touch going in to every aspect of the gym. 

“Yah, changed hands a few years ago.” He shrugs a little, like this is no big deal. But it really is-- to her. She feels like he’s so young to be owning such a large business, running something like this on his own. 

“That’s amazing.” She says softly, looking around a bit more before turning her attention back to him. And his eyes are on her, have been on her the whole time, watching her. Beth fidgets under his stare, feeling a bit exposed. He’s always watching her so intently, like he’s trying to read her. Like he’s slowly figuring her out. He studies her like an abstract art piece—like every movement of every curve and every slope of her body needs to be catalogued for future reference. Every twitch and every tell of her face, every emotion, has some sort of deeper meaning that’s just waiting to be unlocked. 

Beth shifts, trying to get away from his prying eyes. She leans back onto her elbows and stretches her legs out, settling them alongside Rio. She flexes her feet a little, rolling her ankles in tiny circles. “So, do you think you’re done torturing me for the day? I feel like I need to go lie down and...die.” 

Rio huffs out a laugh, copying her pose, stretching his legs out and then dropping back onto his elbows. Only, when his left arm comes down, it drops on the outside of her legs, trapping them between his arm and his body. 

Beth tries to keep her breathing steady as she shoots him a look, but he’s feigning nonchalance. “How bout I put my gloves on an we go a few rounds.” His tone is loaded, the innuendo there clear as day, and Beth rolls her eyes. 

“I think that sounds like an amazing- _ly_ bad idea.” She shifts her legs, planning on pulling them up, but Rio’s fingertips graze across the exposed skin at her ankles and she freezes. 

“Oh yeah? An why’s that?” His voice is low, husky, _way_ too intimate for the context of their situation, and Beth wonders if he’s on sex overdrive with everyone, or if it’s just with her. His fingers skim over her shin this time and she swallows, hard. 

“I barely survived the workout you already put me through.” She points out, studiously avoiding looking at where his hand is now resting on her leg, his thumb tracing small circles into her skin. 

“I promise I'll be gentle.” He gives her leg a light squeeze and Beth rolls her neck to look up toward the ceiling, trying to figure out how they always end up here—with all this sexual tension hanging in the air. Not that she’s complaining, exactly. 

She feels Rio’s hand move higher up and her head snaps back down to look at him. He’s sitting up, his hand dragging back up with him, and it comes to rest just above her knee. 

“Want me to help stretch you out?” 

Beth’s whole body jerks, sitting up straight, and she inhales sharply, nearly choking. She coughs a few times, her legs shifting slightly with the force of it, but Rio holds his hand steady there. She can tell he is highly amused by her reaction and she glares at him. “ _What_?” 

He fixes her with his puppy dog eyes, all faux innocence. “What? We gotta do a cool down if we all done.” 

Beth finally pulls her legs up and Rio’s hand easily slides off and away from her. “I’m good, thanks.” 

Rio shrugs and pushes himself off the floor of the boxing ring and back into a standing position. He holds his hand out and Beth hesitates for a split second before placing her hand in his and letting him pull her up. 

He turns and ducks under the ropes, leaving the ring, and she follows. He leads her over to the matted area by the punching bags again and starts unwrapping his hands and Beth does the same. After all the cloth is off, she flexes her fingers a bit and rolls her wrists out. Rio starts in on arm stretches and Beth follows suit. 

After a minute, she kicks off her shoes, drops down onto the mat, and starts moving through the few yoga poses she can remember from the (one) class she took last year. She vaguely remembers the instructor saying yoga was a good way to cool down after any type of workout. 

She starts with a seated pose, closing her eyes and concentrating on her breathing, slow and steady-- in and out, in and out. She relaxes her body, rolling her neck a few times to work out the kinks there. 

“What’re you doin’?” 

Beth’s eyes snap open and she turns her head to look up at Rio. He’s watching her as he continues to work through his own cool down. 

“I took a yoga class a million years ago. It’s a good way to...center yourself, or whatever.” 

Rio grins at her flippant response as he bends over to start on some hamstring stretches and Beth quickly looks away. She doesn’t want to be caught staring again, especially at his ass. 

“So, you pretty flexible then huh?” 

And Beth rolls her eyes at that, because really, she should’ve seen it coming. She lies back on the mat and tries out a few supine spinal twists, actively ignoring Rio. She closes her eyes and breaths through the stretches. Rio doesn’t say anything else and Beth resists the urge to look over at him again. She moves into bridge pose and hears his sharp intake of breath as she lifts her pelvis up and then brings it back down. She rolls her head to glare at him and sees him just sitting and watching her. So, he must be done stretching then. She thinks about stopping-- if he’s done then she can be done too--but the look on his face as his eyes travel over her, his lower lip caught between his teeth... 

She flips over into cobra pose, refusing to look at him this time, as she feels the stretch throughout her back and abdomen. 

“’Ey, you know that downward dog one?” 

And she should be used to it by now-- the way sex just oozes from his voice, dripping from his words, making heat pool fast and low. She turns her head to look at him now and he cocks his eyebrow, a smirk playing at his lips. She rocks up onto all fours and she can see him shift closer out of the corner of her eye. She can feel her breathing quicken and concentrates on slowing it down. They are in a gym, they are both sweaty and gross (her more so than him), the energy here should not be as sexual as it is. How does he always manage to do that? 

She decides to prep with puppy dog pose first before moving up into downward facing dog. She remembers finding that one a little difficult, always leaning forward a little too far and really feeling the burn in her legs. 

She drops her elbows, palms flat against the mat, fingers spread out. She walks her knees back a little, rocking her hips back to align with them, feeling her spine lengthen as her forehead comes down to touch the mat. She takes a few deep breaths, willing herself to relax. She wiggles her hips a little and when she hears Rio groan, she can’t help the breathless little giggle that comes out. 

“You doin’ real good, ma.” She hears him say and she tilts her head, can see him moving even closer and she drops her forehead back down to the mat as she feels him close behind her, his hand coming out to trail lightly over her back. Beth can’t help the tiny moan that escapes her lips or the way her hips rock back against his touch. 

She hears his quiet “fuck” as his hands slide over her hips, grasping at them, his fingers pressing in, hard. 

There’s a loud banging on the front set of doors and Beth startles, her head coming up as she rocks forward and away from Rio. 

“We’re closed!” He yells out, but whoever’s out there must not hear or must not care, because they bang on the doors again. 

Rio lets out a string of cuss words as he surges to his feet, taking long angry strides towards the door. 

Beth shifts up, rocking back onto her heels, following him with her eyes as he unlocks the door and pushes it open, his whole body tense with irritation. She can hear him speaking harshly with whoever is outside and then he steps back, letting two heavily tattooed guys in through the door. He locks it again behind them and then gestures off toward the side of the gym, to what looks like a set of offices. 

She watches the two men head over in that direction while Rio makes his way back over to her. Beth pulls her shoes back on and stands up, doing her best to ignore the wet heat still between her legs, even though all she can think about is the throbbing ache there and getting home to relieve that tension. 

She thinks about Rio helping with that-- with his hands or his mouth or his... 

But she’s pretty sure that moment has passed and they are done for the day. 

He slows to a stop in front of her, so close she has to tilt her head back to look up at him. He reaches his hand out and tucks a stray piece of hair behind her ear, and then brings his hand down to squeeze at her hip and her breath catches in her throat. 

“I can swing by later?” 

And she knows what he’s asking-- he’s looking for an invitation, wanting to see if she’s ready to take this thing to the next level, letting her know that he is. 

And, god, she _is_ ready. _Really_ she is. But also-- she _isn't_. 

Is he just looking for sex? A casual hook up? Friends with benefits? She’s not sure if she’s ready for any of that, doesn’t know if she’s capable of being a casual sex kind of girl.  
But if she were to test it out on anyone, Rio’s the perfect candidate. She trusts him, feels comfortable with him, knows he would never hurt her. 

So, Beth finds herself nodding her head slowly, and when he squeezes her hip again, looking for more, her voice is small but firm when she says, “Yes. I want you to come by later.” 

Rio helps her gather her things and walks her to the door and Beth feels herself shaking a little as she gets into her car, unsure if it’s from the workout or from Rio or both. 

She starts her car, a small smile playing at her lips as she thinks about Rio and later.

**Author's Note:**

> Full disclosure, these two have a few things to work through before any intimacy happens!  
> They will get there, I promise!


End file.
